Everyone who buys fruit has at some point encountered fruit flies. These obnoxious creatures seem to show up out of nowhere and can multiply very quickly.
If you notice that fruit flies are following you, you may feel a mixture of curiosity and disgust. There are many common reasons why fruit flies follow people.
Why Do Fruit Flies Follow Me?
1. The Soap You Use Attracts Them
Simply put, fruit fries are obsessed with scents. This ability helps them detect fruits that they eat for nutrients and survival.
However, their sharp sense of smell can transcend to the nonedible. If you use a fruit-scented or sweet soap, the flies may notice this and follow you.
If you find that this is a consistent problem during the summer months, it may be as simple as just switching up your soap brand to avoid these annoying swarms.
2. You Have Fruit Juice On You
Imagine you are recently chopping fruit or eating it, and even though you wash your hands you might miss a spot. When this happens, the sweet juice can attract fruit flies.
If you are certain that you’ve washed your hands thoroughly after handling fruit, you may also wish to change your clothes to remove any appeal to the flies.
3. You Need To Brush Your Teeth
Fruit flies can be very attracted to the smell of breath, especially bad breath. This is because they associate it with food particles that they might be able to eat.
If flies are swarming around your face and mouth, this is not only annoying, but could be a sign that you need to change up your dental hygiene routine.
Try brushing your teeth and using mouthwash if the problem persists. Sometimes it is just as simple as getting rid of whatever smell might be there.
Avoid relying on gum, though, as this may make the problem worse.
4. You Need To Dry Your Hair
Fruit flies are more likely to swarm when your hair is wet after a shower or a workout. This is because scents are more potent on wet hair and clothing.
When showering in an area with a lot of fruit flies, it might help to dry your hair completely after taking a shower. It will be worth the effort in the long run!
5. It Is Your Perfume Or Cologne
Similarly, although we might think that the chemicals we spray on our bodies would repel insects, they can do just the opposite, especially when they are scented.
Sweet perfume or cologne can be extremely appealing to fruit flies. They may swarm around you if they particularly like the scent that you spray on your body every day.
6. They Are Attracted To Your Laundry Detergent
Everyone needs to do laundry, and the detergents you use can potentially attract flies, especially if the smell is floral or sweet. You may notice fruit flies like to land on your clothes.
Try changing up your laundry detergent or using a scentless detergent to see if this helps the problem.
Additionally, if clothes are not drying well enough they can develop mold which in turn would attract flies. Taking care of both of these things can help a lot.
7. They Notice Your Body Composition
There is a theory that gnats and fruit flies are especially drawn to people who have high blood sugar and they can sense this based on the way our breath smells.
Although there is not a lot of evidence to back this up, it has been seen that flies are frequently attracted to people who sweat more or have low-sodium diets.
This reveals that fruit flies are very attuned to bodily composition. This is not something that can be easily changed, but it may help explain the phenomenon.
If you think you biologically attract more fruit flies, you might wish to remove overripe fruit from your house or thoroughly disinfect surfaces.
This can prevent the flies from ending up in your home and causing a nuisance.
To learn more, you can also read our posts on why crickets are so loud, why capybaras are so chill, and why a deer would be by itself.
Conclusion
Nobody likes fruit flies, and the dislike grows even worse when they swarm you. People who are followed by fruit flies may wonder why this phenomenon occurs and how to stop it.
Fortunately, fruit flies are usually attracted by scents, and getting rid of them can be as simple as changing the products you use or your soap. You may soon find you have a fruit fly-free life.